Meh to scroll-stopping wowzah

Your copy is meh. What do you do? Punch it up. But how do you “punch it up?” Well, in this snack-size workshop, you’re going to learn my copy fix formula for how to do just that.

Here are three principles that guide great copy:

Clearly understand your prospect’s problem
Make a fresh offer that resonates
Facilitate the next step

As you can see, none of these three principles have anything to do with the words you choose or grammar or sentence length or structure. They have everything to do with intention.

This video is from a live PappyClub workshop on Zoom.

Improving your copywriting skills before outsourcing

Before outsourcing copywriting to the pros, it’s important for you—as a solopreneur—to have a deep understanding of the mindset, attitudes, desires and behaviors of your target client. The more you know about who they are, what they want and what they are dealing with on a daily basis, the better your products, marketing strategies and copywriting skills will become. When you add empathy, you demonstrate via copy (and other mediums such as video and audio) that you get them. As consumers, we all want to be heard, understood and expect the brands we like to anticipate what we need.

Yes, that’s a big ask, but that IS the formula for success in marketing AND customer experience in today’s economy. But before I go too far off on this tangent, let’s bring it back to copy. I’ll go through each of the three principles so you can apply them to your copy fixes.

Understanding their needs

Click the image to download the Copy Fix worksheet

Like any good marketer, relying on one funnel, ad or post to “get the sale” is not reality today. It takes many touches, views and engagements to bring your prospects to action. The more you engage and ask questions of your target clients, the better you’ll get to know them. Understanding the needs of your prospects is critical to drafting copy that resonates with them and moves them to action.

You also need to inject empathy throughout your copy. If you’re writing from a place of “Hey, I get how tough it can be for you. I’m here to help,” sentiment, you’ll not only write copy that’s more emotionally charged, but you’ll understand their journey and be inspired to create better workflows, smarter products and customer service processes to make your offerings a slam dunk for them.

Make the right offer

You can make a bold claim or choose catchy wording, but if your offer doesn’t resonate with your prospect the moment they read it because it’s something they’re struggling with in that moment, they’ll move past your message. The danger is if you do this often, or they see the same tactics repeatedly, they’ll conclude that you are of no value. They’ll hide your ads. They’ll unfollow you. They’ll unlike your page. They’ll remove their connection to you. They’ll unsubscribe. They’ll lump you into the category of noise. When this happens, it’s really hard to win them back. So avoid “cute” or cliché wording or “bait-and-switch” offers.

The ideal offer is one that is unique to their needs and in the context they understand and can act. Make it clear, simple and easy for a third grader to understand. That’s also a great test of your offer or ad copy is to see if a kid understands it. Can you explain what you do so a kid understands it? And if they ask why you do what you do, can you clearly answer that so they understand that as well? Sometimes our best “copy testers” are right in our own family.

Facilitate the next step

Let’s say you’ve done your homework and understand your prospect. You have empathy. You are expressing understanding. You’re making an offer that is clear and resonates with them to the point they are strongly compelled to click your link, schedule a consult or buy your product. If you get those right, you’re almost there. But this is where I see a TON of solos drop the ball. They spend all of their time and effort crafting the perfect “I get you” messaging and resonating offer and totally blow facilitating the next step in the process.

Popular sales funnels and lead generation models also neglect this step because they’re so focused on getting the email address or that initial product sale that it immediately jumps to upsells, servicing or something else in the delivery process, and then onto the next one.

Put yourself in your prospective client’s shoes. After they opt-in, what do they expect to happen next? What expectation have you created? Make sure you’re clear in your initial offer what happens next, or at least put it in the delivery email or thank you page so they know what to do. Make sure you continue to walk them to the next step throughout the entire process. Go a step or two beyond “check your inbox,” or a consult calendar link confirmation automation. This is a golden opportunity to deepen the relationship and learn more from them early so they’re less apt to depart after they’ve sampled your freebie or low-cost initial offer.

Times have changed

If you’re like me, you want high quality clients who are seeking a better experience with brands. Who want to be seen, heard and known. I like having relationships like that with my clients, however, it’s in the design of my high-touch service and intentional. Regardless of what business you are in or what “thing” you’re selling, people—quality people with money to spend—are asking for a lot more than they used to. They are more discerning, choosy and educated where they invest their time and dollars.

Your target clients want to have their needs anticipated. They want your brand to offer them something refreshing and effective at solving their problem—that’s a frictionless experience. In addition, they may not know what solution they need until you present it to them. If that’s the case with your business, you’ll need to work a little harder at writing copy that is educational as well as persuasive. (Check out Robert Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion).

Use the accompanying worksheet to help you challenge your copy against these three principles. The worksheet also helps you reverse engineer your offer based on the product you’re selling or where you want your prospective client to start in your funnel. You’ll find that aligning an existing product or creating a new product will yield a better response because it’s designed to solve an urgent problem your target prospect is having in that moment they see your offer.